Johanna Garth is the author of The Persephone Campbell Series; a modern take on the myth of Hades and Persephone. Johanna lives in McLean, Virginia with her husband and two children.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

The Fulfillment Project Lives Like A Kid

It's a new year and sadly I'm not feeling like a new me. In fact, after an especially ambitious holiday entertaining schedule I feel worn out, like a sponge that has been used too long and really needs to be replaced.

Some people have New Year's resolutions but I have The Fulfillment Project. I decided to combat my worn out, spongelike, dark eyecircled feeling with something that seemed guaranteed to put some spring back into my step.

I would live like a kid.

Fortunately, I have kids so I get to see, first hand, what this means.

One thing it means is healthy eating. Who needs your own Oprah-style personal chef when you have a mother dedicated to turning out well-balanced meals and insisting that all snacks be healthy. Yes, we do dessert at our house but in small portions. Um, what I meant to say is the kids eat dessert in small portions. My husband and I have gotten in the habit of having second and sometimes even third helpings after the kids are in bed.

Speaking of bed, we all know that getting enough sleep is a major component to not feeling like a worn out sponge. I do a pretty good job with this but lately my Kindle reading habit has kept me up into the wee hours.

Which brings me to another component of kid life in the Garth household. Electronic entertainment. If you're a regular reader of my blog you already know it's limited. If I tell my kids they can't watch television during the schoolweek than maybe that would be a good rule for me too.

As I wrote the above three paragraphs my mind was already beginning to reel. There would be a lot of changes in the New Year and I wasn't sure I was entirely prepared for them. Then I heard the kids upstairs. They were emitting that gigantic belly laugh that I hardly ever do anymore. Maybe a couple of weeks of living like a kid is exactly what the doctor ordered.

13 comments:

Trying to recapture the wonders of childhood is definitely a good way to combat sponge-ness!

Just before Christmas I found myself at the mall, in a constant crush of annoying adults who couldn't walk to save their lives-- I was forever weaving, stalking, trudging, and sliding past-- and topped it all off with a dose of grumbling and ill-concealed hatred for everyone.

But then I noticed this kid walking along, completely in his own world, and every few paces he would spin around and walk backwards, then turn back around with a big smile on his face, totally pleased with himself.

While I didn't act on the impulse to employ this method of walking in a crowd, it definitely reminded me that our reactions to life and circumstances are largely a choice we make-- so I could grumble and hate everyone for being in my way or I could be like "hey isn't this awesome, I can walk backwards?!"

My kid is happy as long as her favorite Christmas present is on her lap, and by that I mean the HUGE stuffed animal wolf she got. It's the size of a large German shepherd, and she carries it everywhere.

So, it's the little things, which sometimes turn out to be quite large, and are always fun.

I hope you enjoy a few belly laughs, delight in small portions of dessert, know when to turn the Kindle off and go to sleep.

How old are your kids? Once my daughter hit 13, desserts and snacks were no longer a problem in my house. She eats everything in sight and still has a waistline like a Barbie. I don't know where she puts it ... but there's never anything left for me.